Sometime during the night, Elizabeth awoke from a dreamless sleep. She opened her eyes to pitch darkness, realizing it was still the middle of the night. She was unsure what had awoken her, as it had been a deep slumber. Then, she heard a creak of floorboards near the doorway to her room. She froze and held her breath, realizing that someone might be there, and tried to peer through the darkness from the corner of her eye, afraid to move even to turn her head. The moonlight filtering in through the small window cast long shadows across the center of the room, but left the far corners darkened from view. If someone were there, she would never be able to see them until they walked through the light itself.619Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0F7QSs1pWf
She heard another creak, this time by the wall closest to her. There was someone there, and they had crept around through the shadows in order to avoid being seen! Elizabeth sat bolt upright and jumped from her bed, whirling to face the intruder despite being unable to see in the dark. She could just make out the form of a figure as they lunged towards her.
Elizabeth stumbled backwards, and the intruder’s blade missed her throat by a hair’s breadth. They intended to kill her! It was at this moment that Elizabeth screamed for Leon, hoping to wake him from the next room before it was too late.
“LEON, HELP!” she cried as she fumbled through the dark room, tripping over a piece of wooden furniture and sprawling across the floor. Now, bathed in moonlight, she could see her attacker as they passed by the window. Clad all in black from head to toe, they appeared as what she would envision a ninja or assassin, as she could only make out the cold eyes of a killer. They stood over her now, blade at the ready in their hand. She didn’t want to die!
Fueled by the resultant thought she reached out her hand as a tendril of power crept deep into her core, and seized a well of strength she had never known, and the power flowed through her body and flew out from her palm in flashes of icy blue light. At once the assassin seized up, crimson crystals of iced-blood erupting across his skin, embedding them into the walls and ceilings as he was suspended by his own blood in mid-air. Where the spark of life had shone before, there was nothing but a cold gaze of death.
Unable to bear the shock she screamed and heightened it when she fell back into the nightmarish world of visions, where someone like her, stood in the middle of a sea of bodies. Familiar crimson crystals jutted out from over the battlefield like frozen flames. It was a vision of an ice cold hell.
Another noise came from behind her and without thinking she emerged from her nightmares with her power washing over the newest threat, only to see that it was Leon at the last moment. She shut her eyes, unable to imagine the light harming him too, but it was too late. His body was already awash with her power.
She trembled as she thought of the horror that would greet her eyes. She couldn't open them, she couldn't see another life taken. That was when she felt a warm hand upon her arm.
She opened her eyes and saw Leon there, completely unharmed. She thought that perhaps she managed to control the power at the last moment, but then saw the resultant explosion of ice crystals agaisnt the walls, floors, and ceiling of the cave. Only Leon was untouched.
"You would not know now, but I am the only companion you have ever known, and the only one that is perfectly immune to your abilities. We are made for each other. I could never hurt you, and your powers cannot touch me. We were made to exist together." His voice was soothing and, as he spoke, he stepped cautiously towards her, trying not to upset her further, and drew his arms protectively around her. She melted into his embrace and burst into tears.
“Leon, what happened?” she wailed.
“You are rekindling your lost powers; Eloise’s powers,” Leon explained.
“She could turn blood into ice? That’s horrible,” Elizabeth cried.
“She could turn any liquid into ice, and warp it into any shape she pleased,” Leon explained. “It may sound horrible now, but it can also be a thing of great beauty.”
“How could anyone find that,” she indicated to the now dead assassin’s corpse, “beautiful!?” Leon didn’t reply but instead shushed her and stroked her hair reassuringly. They stayed like that for long minutes before Leon spoke again.
“We should take our leave of here immediately; if they found us here once, they surely can again.”
“Who is ‘they’?” Elizabeth asked, curiously.
“The Daughter’s or Jahan’s men — they apparently already know we are coming, and intend to stop you,” Leon explained as he released her from his embrace. He strode across the room and gathered her bag and clothes. “Change quickly, we must make haste,” he said as he handed her clean riding clothes. He turned his back as Elizabeth obliged, both trying not to look at the assassin’s body suspended in the middle of the room by pillars of his own life’s blood.
As soon as Elizabeth had changed, Leon grabbed their bags and they made for the stables. They packed the saddle bags and mounted the horse together, intent to leave the town far behind them by dawn.619Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdI9MmuVTZg
